DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY AND HARDENING EQUIPMENT FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HARDENING HEAT TREATMENT OF METAL PRODUCTS USING FLUIDIZED BULK MATERIALS (PART 1)

Statement of the problem. One of the main problems faced by a modern enterprise is the search for ways to improve the efficiency of its activities. For the effective functioning of the thermal units of toolmaking industries, the simultaneous availability of heating and quenching devices with different heating and cooling media is required. This explains the desire of manufacturers and scientists to find technological, cheap, environmentally friendly heating and cooling media that can provide the required heat treatment parameters and high quality of the processed parts. The purpose of the article is to analyze the state-of-the-art of hardening thermal (combined) treatment methods using bulk materials as media for volumetric heating and forced cooling of metal products and the design and technological features of hardening devices that can ensure a rational structural state of metal parts of complex geometric shapes with a minimum level of their warping and deformation on the example of using vibro-fluidized bulk materials (in the technical literature, the term vibro-gravity particles of heat is used). Research results. To analyze the results of tests of bulk materials as quenching media for high-alloy steel grades and their effect on the structure and properties of the metal in comparison with the traditional oil quenching regime. To consider the features of quenching devices that use mechanical vibration to produce vibro-s bulk material and the possibility of their use in the implementation of quenching modes (including isothermal) of steel products of complex geometric shapes. Conclusion. The use of fluidized bulk materials in industry as media for volumetric heating and hardening of metal products and the design of devices for their use has been investigated. The advantages of the fluidized bed cooling method for the effective implementation of hardening heat treatment regimes are determined. It is shown that this method of forced volumetric cooling of toolmaking products is rational in terms of various indicators. The structural and technological parameters of devices for its implementation are analyzed, which can consistently provide the required level of properties of alloyed and high-alloy tool steels with a minimum level of warping and deformation.